Forms: 1 culter, 4 cultre, coltour, kulter, 4–6 culture, 5 cultre, (-ere, -ur, -yr), 6 cultar, -or(e, (dial. kowter), 7 coultar, colture, (7–9 dial. cooter), 4– culter, 5– colter, 6– coulter. [OE. culter, a. L. culter coulter, knife; in OF. coltre, coultre, F. coutre, which may have influenced the ME. and modern forms; cf. however with coulter and dial. cooter, the phonetic development of OE. sculder, mod. shoulder, dial. shooder. The spelling colter is preferred in American dictionaries; culter also given in mod. dictionaries on account of its use by Shaks., appears to be since 17th c. only dial. (e.g., in W. Somerset).]
1. The iron blade fixed in front of the share in a plow; it makes a vertical cut in the soil, which is then sliced horizontally by the share.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Colloq., in Wr.-Wülcker, 90. Gefæstnodon sceare and cultre mid ðære syl. Ibid., 99. Hwanon ðam yrþlingc sylanscear oþþe culter.
a. 1100. Voc., ibid. 313. Vomer, scear. Cultor, culter.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1547. As a coltour in clay cerues þo forȝes.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. IV. 464. To schare or to kulter.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Miller’s T., 577. A smyth … That in his forge smythed plowh-harneys; He scharpeth schar and cultre bysily.
1558. Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees), 170. A kowter, a soke, a muk fowe, a graype, 2 yerne forks.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 36. Two ploughs and a plough chein, ij culters, iij shares.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., V. ii. 46. While that the Culter rusts, That should deracinate such Sauagery.
1611. Bible, 1 Sam. xiii. 20. To sharpen euery man his share and his coulter.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 334/2. A Plow Culter, or Cooter vulgarly.
c. 1745. Akenside, Odes, I. xii. To Sir F. H. Drake. He whets the rusty coulter.
1872. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 34. The coulter and the share were in one, and the [ancient Egyptian] plough was constructed without wheels.
fig. 1762. Falconer, Shipwr., III. 193. By time’s deep-piercing coulter harrow’d o’er.
1886. T. Hardy, Mayor of Casterbr., xiv. That field-mouse fear of the coulter of destiny.
† 2. A knife. Obs. (app. a Latinism).
[a. 1000. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 273. Sicca, cultur.]
1382. Wyclif, Prov. xxiii. 2. Set a culter in thi throte.
3. attrib. and Comb. (First quot. doubtful.)
1630. in Lex Londinensis (1680), 201. That no man … shall presume to shute any Draw-net or Coulter-net … before Sun-rising nor after Sun-setting.
a. 1740. Tull, in Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. Coulter, Its right side above, to bear against the upper edge of the coulter hole.
1787. Winter, Syst. Husb., 297. Two coulter bars … containing grooves … for the reception of bolts and screws, by which the coulters are fastened.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 116. A sharp comb welded on the coulter margin of the share.
1834. R. Mudie, Brit. Birds (1841), I. 154. Bill … coulter-shaped.
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Coulter-box … the iron clip and screw by which the coulter is fixed in its place on the beam.
Hence Coultered a., as in four-coultered, having four coulters.
a. 1740. Tull, in Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. Coulter, In the four coultered plough.
1765. A. Dickson, Treat. Agric. (ed. 2), 228. The plough with two coulters … will not … do near so much work as the four-coultered plough.
